Boston Metro Hi Railers' open house is Dec. 9

The Boston Metro Hi Railers Club will hold its 14th semiannual open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 9 at 5 Waltham St., Wilmington.

Many of the more than 100 engines and 200 passenger and freight cars will be on displayed and operating.

Some of the favorite attractions at the open house are kid’s layouts, where boys and girls run trains and operate accessories on each of the three layouts designed especially for them.

The children’s layout now has a large Thomas the Train design that adds to the fun. Parents can watch the kids take over operating the trains and accessories.The Boston Metro Hi Railers organization can be described as a model train club that depicts the transition from steam and electric locomotives to diesel engines, one of the three distinct eras of railroading that enthusiast’s create on their layouts.

First is the Steam Era, from the early 1800s to the 1940s. Next comes the Transition Era, spanning the 1940s through the 1950s, when the last steam locomotives ran, and the first generation of diesels took over.

Lastly, there is the Modern Era, from the 1960s to present. Club members run stream locomotives from the mid 1900s and diesel engines from their early introduction to current prototypes, sometimes side-by-side the way prototypical railroads did during the transition.

The Hiawatha Passenger set, made by Lionel, will be featured this year, running on one of the club’s two mainline tracks.

According to Wikipedia, the Hiawatha’s were a fleet of named passenger trains operated by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (also known as the Milwaukee Road) between Chicago and various destinations in the Midwest and Western United States. The most notable of these trains was the original Twin Cities Hiawatha, which served the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

The Hiawatha’s were among the world's fastest trains in the 1930s and 1940s, and these trains reached some of their peak speeds on this stretch. Today Hiawatha Service is the name of an 86-mile train route operated by Amtrak on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

The club will also display and run the Empire State Express, which traveled between New York City and Buffalo, and in later years stretched its run to Cleveland.

The Express had a 4-6-4 stem engine and travelled at speeds up to 70 mph when it first ran on Dec 7, 1941. It pulled passenger cars named after prominent New York governors, such as Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt, Al Smith and George Clinton.

The club has been working hard to update and complete its major layout and we have added to Scranton with the construction of Luna Amusement Park, which is named after and partly based on, the first Luna Park, which opened in 1903 on Coney Island.

Admission is $10 per family, $5 for single adults and children under 10 for free when accompanied by an adult. Refreshments will be available.